Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told the legislature yesterday that sprouted potatoes from the US would "never" make their way into Taiwan’s market.
Cho’s comments came after the Ministry of Agriculture published updated regulations on Feb. 6, allowing the import of US potatoes with limited amounts of mold and sprouts under 5mm.
Under the new rules, part of the Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART), potatoes with sprouts more than 5mm or that are rotten or moldy above the allowable limit must be discarded immediately. Potatoes with sprouts under 5mm, or that are rotten or moldy within allowable limits must undergo "extra" processing at processing facilities.
Photo: Bloomberg
At a legislative hearing yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said the new regulations effectively moved inspections of US-imported potatoes from the customs to processing facilities.
She said many NGOs and parents have expressed concern that the processing facilities would not be able to screen for sprouted potatoes, increasing the risk of solanine poisoning associated with mashed potatoes, French fries and chips.
Yang questioned whether the "extra" measures meant sprouted potatoes would be processed after the sprout is removed.
Cho said imports are first screened before leaving the US to remove any sprouted or defective potatoes.
Should any potatoes be found to have sprouted during shipment, spot checks would be performed on potatoes in the same container, and the entire container would be returned if excessive amounts of solanine are detected, he said.
"If poison is found in additional forensic testing, the whole container will be returned, so it is impossible that it will be made into chips or fries," Cho said.
"Once rotten, moldy or sprouted potatoes are found, they will be discarded and not processed," the premier said.
Food safety and public health, along with national and industrial benefits, are the four tenets of ongoing trade negotiations with the US, and would not be violated, he added.
Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said that US potatoes would not be screened at processing facilities, but at other "designated locations."
"It will still be part of border control, because they will be sealed in containers, with officials escorting the goods and supervising the inspections," Chen said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) also said that the potatoes "will stay at the customs before inspection is completed, and they will not circulate to processing facilities."
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